Why Spring Break Sucks
It’s spring break for many kids in and around the Emerald City. I live in an upscale suburb of Seattle, where spring break is a big freaking deal. My kids have friends in Mexico and Hawaii, at ski resorts and Grandma’s house. Where you go and what you do for spring break is very much a one-up process here.
Two weeks prior, pretty much anyone you ran into while grocery shopping, banking, or getting a bikini wax would casually ask, “What are you doing for spring break?” These people didn’t really want to know what you had planned as much as they wanted to tell you what they were doing.
“We rented a mansion on Grand Cayman,” they say. Or, “We always go to Whistler for spring break. The skiing there is wonderful. Did you know we bought a house there?” And of course I did know because I’ve been told about it every year for the past century.
Like every year, this year during spring break I will be . . . drumroll puh-leeaassee . . . working. Ta da!
The kids will stay up half the night, sleep half the day, play video games, watch T.V., instant message their friends, each junk food and otherwise get on my nerves. I will get up at 5am to work in my home office until they wake up. With a little luck, I can get a solid 5 or 6 hours in before they start asking me for things. “Spring break sucks!” they will tell me over and over again, meaning that by staying home while their friends travel their lives are somehow defective.
They have already forgotten that we went skiing in Big White, Canada during mid-winter break. (What the hell? When I was a kid, there was no such thing as mid-winter break. Kids these days have it so easy.) We planned and saved for eight long months to pay for that trip and had to rent a condo because we don’t own one there. (Or anywher else for that matter.)
With one spring break day down and nine to go, I’m sure I will survive. Until summertime, when the questions begin again. ” What are you doing this summer?”
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